December 19, 2007

Ahh so Christmas is now less than a week away, and the festivities are on like donkey kong. Remember when this time of the year would summon pants wetting excitement as you carefully penned this year’s Christmas list, instead of repressing homicidal tendencies as you navigate Christmas shopping crowds and fight the urge to punch slow walkers in the back of the head? Remember when Christmas holidays spanned seven weeks and the only stress you had was whether mum would let ya have your mates over for sunny boys tomorrow, not how on Earth you’ll live down last Friday’s Office Christmas Party shenanigans (I’m introducing a new rule, no cameras allowed past 12 midnight. Opportunity for devious turds to blackmail coworkers are painfully rife). This year my brief holiday will be spent drinking, eating and eating and definitely drinking and in those bits where I’m blessed with some skerrick of coherence and clarity I may reflect on the year that was 2007, like so:

CORE’S BEST GIGS OF 2007

The Bronx/Mint Chicks @ HiFi Bar
Filthiest, sweatiest, loudest, most overbearing, sense offending gig of the year. Bronx guitarist Joby Ford had busted his back at the previous show. Solution? Suck it up and play in a wheelchair. Damn straight.

Against Me/The Draft @ Corner Hotel
Against Me…AND The Draft….Against Me! And the Draft…. Need I say more?

Bad Religion/Strung Out/MYC @ Festival Hall
Bad Religion came, saw and conquered. Strung Out held their own, playing alongside their confessed idols. MYC said a sad farewell to hometown Melbourne. Despite Festy Hall’s best efforts, this gig will go down in history as one of the best ever.

Jungle Fever @ Arthouse
You know when you’ve been waiting to see a promising band live, and then you finally do and they totally deliver and you get goosebumps on your guts? Yeah, that.

Alexionsifre/Moneen @ Billboards
I want to have George Pettit’s hairy denim-clad offspring.

Flogging Molly @ The Metro
Gogol Bordello may have left them high and dry but everyone’s favourite ginger drunken uncle and his band of Irish brothers shudder the foundations of The Metro. Despite the dancefloor’s concerning adhesive qualities a Tuesday night crowd jig with reckless abandon.

Poison City Records Showcase @ The Espy
The Espy is filled with booze and bands as multiple stages operate simultaneously with over enthused and well-cabbaged punters skipping to and from each. Newcomers The Overcast are surprise packet of the night while the ever-reliable Blueline Medic top off proceedings with a spectacular 1am set- conga line and all.

Billy Talent @ Corer Hotel
Always a huge relief when a band that pride themselves on wikkid rad harmonies and a tonne of energy and ambition deliver 100% in the flesh.